Shattered Hopes: A Contemporary Tale of Marriage, Murder, Corruption and Cover-Up in the Suburbs

In 1982 Dianne Masters, the estranged wife of a suburban Chicago lawyer, was murdered. Her husband, Alan, we're shown here, was somewhat sleazy: he was a ``fixer'' with ties to the underworld and influence over many police officers and judges, secured by bribes. Physically abusive and obsessed with controlling his wife, he was furious to learn that she had taken a lover and planned to divorce him. He hired two police officers to kill her, but, according to Schaaf ( Mr. Dooley's Chicago ), murdered her himself, and the cops disposed of her body in a nearby canal. Because of Alan's connections, the three were not brought to trial until 1989. They were convicted of soliciting and arranging the murder and given long prison sentences. Even more disheartening than this case, covered so interestingly and effectively here, is the wider implication which, Schaaf notes, has not been resolved: ``It would be satisfying to write that the . . . corruption and criminal activity revealed during the Masters trial resulted in a cleanup of the system, but it would be untrue.'' Photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)